As National Teen Driver Safety Week kicks off, Ford Motor Company is increasing its efforts to reduce teen crashes and fatalities through education and technology. Ford is expanding the reach of its nationwide award-winning driver’s education program, Driving Skills for Life, and recently introduced MyKeyTM, an innovative technology that helps reinforce safe driving practices. A recent Harris Interactive Survey, commissioned by Ford, shows 57 percent of parents worry that cell phone conversations are distracting their teen drivers and 51 percent worry about speeding. The numbers are reversed for teens as 44 percent admit to speeding, but only 34 percent say they actually talk on their phones while driving. Professional Driving instructor Randy Bleicher (Bly-shur), along with a team of NASCAR and Indy 500 instructors, says the Driving Skills for Life program addresses the distraction issue.
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"We talk a lot about distraction and of course distraction with speed management is a hugh factor, so they also recognize that is a problem, they talk about their cell phones and they laugh about it, but they do know and it is a problem and it's becoming more to the front so that they're aware of it." :12 sec. |
Participants learn skills in four key areas; speed management, space management, vehicle handling and hazard recognition. According to Bleicher experts have identified the lack of these skills to be the cause of approximately 60 percent of vehicle crashes for newly licensed drivers, ages 16-19. This program gives kids actual hands-on experience taking the lessons well beyond basic drivers training. |
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"Yea, it's a little different type of driver's training, we're in an environment where we can do, oversteer skids, we can work on various manuevers that require, extra space incase something goes wrong. It just gives us that extra edge with the room we have and the space we have." :14 sec. |
Bleicher was quick to point out that Driving Skills for Life is an extension of Driver's Training, giving the teenager more choices to handle the unexpected. |
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"It does give them some more tools and make them more aware of their abilities and the cars abilities and things that they need to do so they don't panic in those situation hopefully, they, they at least have an idea of what to do so they can maintain control." :11 sec. |
Ford recently unveiled another safety technology for teen drivers called MyKey. According to Brian Bennie, Supervisor for Ford's new MyKey technology, it is designed to encourage safe driving behavior by teens and will be offered in the 2010 Ford Focus. Bennie says it'll become standard across many Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models beginning in early 2009. |
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"MyKey will give parents peace of mind when their teenage drivers drive the vehicle. We know that teenages drive distracted and they may not wear their seatbelt all the time. This encourages good safe driving behavior." :13 sec. |
MyKey technology allows parents to limit the top speed and audio volume. MyKey also provides earlier low-fuel warnings and can be programmed to sound chimes at 45, 55 and 65 miles per hour. MyKey will debut as a standard feature next year on the 2010 Ford Focus and will quickly be offered on many other Ford, Lincoln and Mercury models. |